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    God does not have knowledge of future contingent events b... — Carmelics
    Home/Free Will & Foreknowledge
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God does not have knowledge of future contingent events because it is impossible for anyone, including God, to know such true propositions.

    Against an attribute of GodFree Will & Foreknowledge
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Even if true propositions about future contingent events exist, knowing them may be impossible.
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    • 2.Impossibility of knowing future contingent propositions applies universally, including to God.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.God's knowledge is timeless and simultaneous with all events, so 'future' contingents are present to God's eternal now.
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    • 2.Boethius and Aquinas argued that God does not foreknow but rather 'now-knows' all events from an atemporal vantage point.
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    • 3.If God perceives all events as present rather than future, the epistemic barrier of future contingency never applies to divine knowledge.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Middle Knowledge (Molinism) holds that God knows counterfactuals of creaturely freedom, grounding knowledge of contingents without determining them.
      ?

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    • 2.Luis de Molina argued that God's scientia media is logically prior to creation, making future contingent knowledge neither foreknowledge nor determination.
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    • 3.If a coherent logical space exists for knowing what free agents would do under any circumstances, the universal impossibility claim in P2 is falsified.
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    Topics

    Free Will & ForeknowledgeAgainst an attribute of God

    Key Terms

    knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.)
    Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.

    Connections

    1 topic

    Modality & Possibility1 linked

    Related

    Boethius and Aquinas argued that God does not foreknow but rather 'now-knows' al...Even if true propositions about future contingent events exist, knowing them may...God's knowledge is timeless and simultaneous with all events, so 'future' contin...If God perceives all events as present rather than future, the epistemic barrier...
    +4 moreShow less
    If a coherent logical space exists for knowing what free agents would do under a...Impossibility of knowing future contingent propositions applies universally, inc...

    Similar

    God does not have knowledge of future contingent events because there ...95%Even if true propositions about future contingent events exist, knowin...89%Impossibility of knowing future contingent propositions applies univer...84%Human beings are sometimes in a knowledge-conferring situation (KCS) w...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: prophecy
    View source passageHide passage
    Another way of trying to solve the puzzle is to deny that God has knowledge of the contingent future. According to this approach, often called “open theism”, there may be future contingent events, but God does not know about them. God does not know about them either because (1) there are no true propositions now that report what future contingent events will occur, or because (2) it is impossible for anyone, including God, to know such true propositions, or because (3) God chooses not to know th
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Luis de Molina argued that God's scientia media is logically prior to creation, ...
    Middle Knowledge (Molinism) holds that God knows counterfactuals of creaturely f...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit